This invention relates to an apparatus for producing a polyacetylene film and, more particularly, to such an apparatus adapted to produce a polyacetylene film having uniform thickness and large area.
A polyacetylene is the most simple chain conjugated high-molecular compound which contains as ingredients a carbon atom and a hydrogen atom, and has properties as a semiconductor. Particularly, a polyacetylene membrane which is laminated with Ziegler-Natta catalyst (Ti(OC.sub.4 H.sub.9).sub.4 --Al(C.sub.2 H.sub.5).sub.3 series) has fibril fibrous ultrafine crystal) mesh structure of approx. 200 .ANG. in diameter. When this membrane is slightly doped with halogen gas or arsenic pentafluoride, its conductivity can be largely varied.
Since such a polyacetylene membrane has extreme chemical stability, a light weight and a fibril mesh structure, resulting in a large surface area, the polyacetylene membrane has already been noted as a favorable electrode material for a secondary battery and in applications to integrated circuits.
As a method of producing the above-described polyacetylene film, it was heretofore known to produce the polyacetylene film by the method which has the steps of preparing the molar ratio of aluminum/titanium of the Ziegler-Natta catalyst to 3 to 4, and cooling the catalyst at -78.degree. C. with a refrigerant of a dry ice methanol, blowing acetylene gas onto the catalyst, thereby polymerizing the gas in the vicinity of the boundary between the vapor phase and the liquid phase in the surface of the catalyst solution.
An apparatus of the prior art is illustrated in FIG. 1. In order to heretofore produce actually the above-described polyacetylene film, Ziegler-Natta b is stored in a cylindrical vessel a, the vessel a is fluctuated to adhere the catalyst b to the inner wall surface a' of the vessel a, acetylene gas is introduced from the supply tube c into the vessel a, thereby forming a polyacetylene film d obtained by the polymerization of the gas over the boundary between the vapor phase and the liquid phase of the catalyst b stored in the bottom of the vessel a from the catalyst b adhered to the inner wall surface a'.
In the conventional case, the polyacetylene film d produced on the surface b' in the catalyst b in the bottom is impregnated with a large quantity of catalyst in the fibril mesh structure. Accordingly, its quality is deteriorated, and thus only the polyacetylene film d produced on the inner wall surface a' can be utilized as the material for the electrode of the secondary battery or the other field. The production efficiency is therefore low. Further, and the catalyst b adhered to the peripheral surface a' tends to flow down toward the bottom surface even in the polyacetylene film d of the inner wall surface. Thus, the bottom side too thick, resulting in an irregular thickness. Further, it is difficult to adhere the catalyst sufficiently to the upper part of the surface a'. Thus, it is necessary to store a large quantity of the catalyst in the bottom and to rotate it at a high speed, thereby disadvantageously causing the film of high quality not to be produced.